As they arrived, one of the nurses intoned "From this day forward, all of the patients will get increasingly safer." As in...today is the bottom, and it only goes up from here. Apparently there's even a study which showed that deaths, infection rates, medical errors, etc, at teaching hospitals all spike in July. Someone else commented that today is not the day to have surgery!
I was forewarned of their approach: that they'd be lost, looking up blankly at the ceiling and lights vainly hoping for any signage to tell them where to go, and afraid to talk to the nurses or anybody else. And one, always one, will be wearing a backpack. All the nurses were disappointed when ten or so residents descended on (I mean, cowered their way onto) the unit with no backpacks. But then young guy with a backpack showed up late, and a few of the nurses discretely cheered.
I hate to say it, but if medical students worked as nurse's aides on the side, they wouldn't be so afraid of the hospital. It's like a prison: it's a different social world with its own rules, cliques, etc, and any familiarity would give you a leg up. Also, I'm pretty sure nursing school gives you 100 times more practical patient experience than medical school. I was not this scared right out the door!
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OMG. Don't remind me - it's that time of year again.
ReplyDeleteRUN FOR THE HILLS!!!
And it takes them twice as long to figure out that the nurse is always right! LOL
ReplyDeleteI was a moulage patient last week for a mandatory ATLS course for the new residents at a Level I trauma center in my city.
ReplyDeleteIt was actually kind of frightening. A full half actually made good choices in the scenarios...the other half? Not so much.
I died 4 times in a row before someone actually saved me. Usually because the resident decided to intubate and positive pressure ventilate me...with an unresolved tension pneumo/hemothorax and cardiac tamponade...
Intubate! Chest tubes! I felt like that during a pre-code situation the other week...I'm like, heart rate's in the 200's, can we cardiovert or push adenosine? And the residents just kept staring at the monitor trying to figure out the monitor. Scary.
ReplyDeleteSean, yeah, pretty much. We have to wait patiently while they go through all their options and arrive (maybe the next day) at the conclusion we already reached...